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Human Spaceflight became a reality 50 years ago with the launch of a ball-shaped capsule called “Vostok 1.” The capsule was carrying Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who took his place in history as the first human to leave the bounds of Earth and enter outer space.

Exactly 20 years later, the United States embarked on a new era in spaceflight with the inaugural launch of a new type of spaceship — the Space Shuttle. Designed to carry a larger crew and large volumes of cargo to orbit, the Space Shuttles became synonymous with human spaceflight for an entirely new generation of young people.

When the next 20-year point arrived, that generation (often called “Gen X”) laid a new space milestone by connecting thousands of people around the world to celebrate and honor the past, while building a stairway to the future. That event was Yuri’s Night, and it continues to bring the excitement, passion and promise of space travel closer to people of all ages, nationalities and backgrounds .....

Ukraine: International art project "Space Odyssey 2011"Week of Modern Art devoted to the celebration of 50 years one of the brightest events of the twentieth century - the first human space flight. On April, 12 Rochus Aust and Re-Load Futura artistirc group will create the performance Gagarin-Lounge at the Arsenal. www.artarsenal.in.ua

Piers Bizony is a space writer and a science historian who has recently collaborated on a graphic novel 'Yuri's Day – The Road to the Stars', with writer/Illustrator Andrew King and publisher Peter Hodkinson.

He is also the co-writer of Starman – The Truth behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin.

'Yuri's Day – The Road to the Stars' is a Graphic Novel about a man and his young protégé who altered the course of history in 1961, even though the world knew almost nothing about them. The younger man's great achievement, celebrated to this day, took him less than two hours to complete, yet required his courage and commitment over a period of years. A happy and triumphant superstar at the age of 27, his toughest challenge was to recover his sanity and self-respect in the glare of the global fame that came afterwards. Meanwhile, his protector and boss, Russia's greatest rocket genius, was forced into the shadows of obscurity by the State authorities.

Written and illustrated by Vix Southgate and sponsored by the British Council, Yuri Gagarin - The First Spaceman is a biography of Yuri Gagarin’s life and includes a comic book-style illustrated transcript of his space flight. “People of all ages are enjoying my book, but it has been written with children in mind. As well as lots of facts and historical information, it is full of pictures and illustrations. I have also developed teaching resources that encourage teachers and parents to look at the science behind ecological issues, as well as space and Yuri Gagarin’s historic achievement.“

Yuri Gagarin was born in the village of Klushino near Gzhatsk (now in Smolensk Oblast, Russia), on 9 March 1934. The adjacent town of Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin in 1968 in his honour. His parents, Alexey Ivanovich Gagarin and Anna Timofeyevna Gagarina, worked on a collective farm. While manual labourers are described in official reports as "peasants", this may be an oversimplification if applied to his parents — his mother was reportedly a voracious reader, and his father a skilled carpenter. Yuri was the third of four children, and his elder sister helped raise him while his parents worked. Like millions of people in the Soviet Union, the Gagarin family suffered during Nazi occupation in World War II.

His two elder siblings were deported to Nazi Germany for slave labour in 1943, and did not return until after the war. While a youth, Yuri became interested in space and planets, and began to dream about his space tour which would one day become a reality. Yuri was described by his teachers in the Moscow satellite town of Lyubertsy as intelligent and hard-working, if occasionally mischievous. His mathematics and science teacher had flown in the Soviet Air Forces during the war, which presumably made some substantial impression on young Gagarin .....

On 12th April 2011 it will be 50 years to the day since Yuri Gagarin climbed into his space ship and was launched into space. It took him just 108 minutes to orbit Earth and he returned as the World's very first space man.

To mark this historic flight, film maker Chris Riley has teamed up with the astronauts onboard the International Space Station to film a new view of what Yuri would have seen as he travelled around the planet.

Weaving these new views together with historic voice recordings from Yuri's flight and an original score by composer Philip Sheppard, Riley has created a spellbinding film to share with people around the World on this historic anniversary.

First Orbit is an Attic Room Production in association with Yuri's Night and YuriGagarin50. There will be a special global premiere of the film on the 12th April on YouTube.

BFI Films: This Soviet-made newsreel records cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (1934-68), the first man to journey into outer space, as he returns to a hero's welcome in Moscow on 12 April 1961. Following a motorcade through the city, he is personally praised by the then Communist leader Nikita Khrushchev during a mass rally in Red Square.